The book is hardly execrable -- though one cringes when characters living in Renaissance Italy (you read that right) say things like "Deal with it" and "Your ex-girlfriend hates me." And the friendship between Clea and the daughter of the horse whisperer is nicely drawn. It's also more skillfully written than any of the "Twilight" books, though the baying of hounds, transcribed, would best Stephenie Meyer's prose.

Variety examines the proliferation of record labels devoted to film soundtracks.

“It has its own chapters and satisfying or unsatisfying endings, and there’s nothing for the novelist to do but run along afterwards,” he says. “That’s not a position for any novelist to be in. We lead; we don't tag along.”

Stylistically, Best Coast — comprised of Cosentino, guitarist Bobb Bruno and drummer Ali Koehler — varies from fuzzy, lo-fi indie rock to charming torch songs, all led by Cosentino's classic vocals. Think Jenny Lewis fronting Vivian Girls. (Incidentally, Koehler is a former member of the latter.) But in terms of subject matter, it's pretty much all longing, all the time — not that there's anything wrong with that. The loose theme, to hear Cosentino tell it, just sort of happened. A product of her subconscious. Of course, a recent girl-group binge didn't hurt.

Old-school commentators fear publishing houses now treat books as a commodity, a product to be bought, developed and sold like any other. It is not just the editing that is slapdash, they say, but the whole process that takes a book from conception to the bookshop shelf.

Wired.co.uk reports that streaming music service Spotify is now the top-tier music revenue source in Sweden.

The New York Times profiles Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel prize winner for literature and Princeton professor.

Hypebot shares an infographic comparing artist revenue from record labels and independently released music.